Buck Showalter tried to keep an atmosphere of calm in his postgame press conference on Wednesday, even if the thousands of fans at Citi Field left in panic after Max Scherzer quickly pulled himself from the game with left side discomfort.
Showalter had to deal with a similar situation immediately to start his managing tenure with the Mets, as ace Jacob deGrom suffered a stress reaction in his right scapula just before the start of the season, and hasn’t thrown off a mound since. Losing Scherzer would sideline the two dynamic arms that made up the best 1-2 rotation punch in all of baseball, but Showalter won’t worry about that until getting an official word on Scherzer’s injury.
“We don’t try to live in that world,” Showalter said. “If we have to make the adjustments, we’ll make him. Max is a really good pitcher, obviously. He pitches once every fifth day or sixth day or seventh day for us, so we’ll make the adjustment. We'd like to have him. If we don't, the season keeps going. They don't wait for us. Ask Jake.
Showalter didn’t have a message for his team after the game, another Mets win to maintain their comfortable lead atop the NL East. Losing both Scherzer and deGrom for extended time would certainly but that division lead at risk, but Showalter isn’t going to let that potential reality jolt him out of the here and now, where New York continues to win and Scherzer awaits a diagnosis on what could turn out to be a minor injury.
“We’ve talked about it. This is not a normal thing to do to your body seven days a week for seven or eight months,” Showalter said. “What are you gonna do? We don’t wallow around in self-pity. Nobody cares about your problems, really. Our fans do, but the people we’re competing against don’t. we like the people we surrounded ourselves with. Nobody with the track record of Max, but this is not a ‘sky is falling’ team.”
Showalter didn’t have any further update on Scherzer after the game, but there likely will be one on Thursday, while the Mets are finishing their series with the Cardinals in a matinee in Queens.
“Side discomfort, we’ll see,” Showalter said. “They’ll do some imaging tomorrow. Let the doctor do their thing, and we’ll see. Hope for the best.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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